Jakub Matuška aka Masker – The Red Gentleman Leaves on the Water and the Devil Wears Paddles

Only a few artists associate such opposite moments in their works as a painter and cartoonist, author of large-format mural, graffiti, three-dimensional objects and large canvas, Jakub Matuska aka “Masker”. In his work, the comic character alternates with a tragic, dramatic tension released in the esoteric transition to transcendence, or the general elements become symbolic forms. And that is symbolic for Matuška’s work and for the publication “The Red Gentleman Walking on the Water and the Devil Wears Paddles” is the key element. The publication contains a major author’s drawing, but also his latest painting. His work recognizes an effort to overcome transcendence, capture timeless momentum in the limited space of the image, and link it to the real nature of the time of human life.

Jakub Matuška aka Masker has gained a special position in the Czech art scene with his clearly recognizable manuscript, demonic imagination and the ability of comic abbreviations. He is still on the way, although he does not see it as a linear process, but rather the ability to read the multitude and diversity that are present at one and the same moment – the image.